Hello everyone,

I recently purchased a new '3-axis desktop CNC router/engraver' machine, however, when i just got it started it seemed fine except for a faint high-pitched sound somewhere about the machine (which seemed to stop on its own eventually after a couple days). About a day or two after i found that my 'Z-axis' started acting kinda strange, in that it seemed to develop a sense of its own limits and just goes into reverse sometimes randomly - i.e. if i'm jogging it in one direction it sometimes responds ok, but then other times it just goes in the opposite direction, its very difficult to predict!

To make it worst, when trying to actually use it, it seems as though the 'X' and 'Y' axies run quite fine, but there seems to be no real control over the 'Z'.

I've tried shuffling around the driver cards in the controller box, redirecting the assigned 'port-pin addresses' in Mach3 and the associated port wires to match, even swaping the 'z' motor drive wires to the 'x' designation on the output card of the controller. The motor simply acts the same!

The last thing i tried was to apply a sudden resistance to the motor rotation (with the drive belt disconnected) when i noticed the motor would just change rotation direction when i do this!

Before i conclude that it is the motor, can anyone who may have had a similar experience, or knowledge of this kind of problem give me some much needed advice?

Thanks!